Photographs by Clayton Burkhart

Orpheus Descending is a photographic voyage through the streets of New York at night, that occupies a space somewhere between dream and reality. Lost in a garden of steel, stone, concrete, and neon, it adopts the point of view of an anonymous wanderer in this mythic city. Photographed over a span of twenty years, it represents a descent into another kind of world. As in the myth of Orpheus it speaks of absence and loss by what is not there; an empty chair, a wet, almost deserted street. We sense there is a personal story behind these pictures without ever having been given all the specific details. The point of view is interiorized and often intimate, even if its subjects are mostly exterior. Faces are transformed into a blur of color, or simply stare out at us as if from another time. Expressionist in saturated color and form, the grain of the film mixes with the rain until one cannot be separated from the other.

About the Author:

Clayton Burkhart was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1966. He studied photography and cinema at New York University. Since 1992, Clayton has divided his time between New York, Paris, and Milan working in fashion and advertising. In 2004, he renewed his interest in filmmaking, producing several short works along the same themes presented in this book.

Hardcover / $40 USD
8.75″ x 12” / 112 pages
90 four-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-8841675-91

Website price: $20